FlutterbyeWings

This year marks the 10th anniversary of National Adoption Day, a national day of celebration of adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize the adoptions of children from foster care. Since 2000, more than 25,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption Day. This year on November 21, families, adoption advocates, policymakers, judges and volunteers will come together and celebrate adoption in communities large and small all across the nation.

Tags: National Adoption Day

Update 2/18

In a sad turn of events, Arkansas State Police have canceled the Amber Alert for Dominick after he was found drowned in a lake near his mother’s home.

Searchers on Wednesday found the body of a 3-year-old boy missing for more than a week, floating in a southwestern Arkansas lake near his mother’s home.

Ouachita County Sheriff David Norwood said authorities found the body of Dominick Arceneaux, barefoot and clad in denim shorts, floating in White Oak Lake. Dominick’s body was only 10 feet from the shore, Norwood said.

The body was taken to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy. Norwood said foul play was not suspected in Dominick’s death, but “nothing’s been ruled out

Source

Posted: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 10:22 PM AT

Code Amber News Service (CANS) issued this Missing Endangered person Alert after the boy disappeared while playing behind his home Tuesday afternoon in Chidester which is in south central Arkansas.

Dominick Wesley Arceneaux a white male, 3 feet tall, weighs 38 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jean shorts with red stitching on the pockets.

There are no suspects in this case at this time. However, officials are leaning toward the possibility Arceneaux was kidnapped because they haven’t found any sign of the boy as of Thursday night.

There is no suspect vehicle at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Office (870) 837-2200 or dial 911

The search for a missing boy intensified Friday, with dozens of National Guardsmen scouring the woods near White Oak Lake, a police helicopter buzzing above and FBI agents questioning every sex offender in a 40-mile radius from where the 3-year-old vanished.

The soldiers walked shoulder to shoulder through the rugged terrain, looking for any signs of the boy. Search dogs were sent in from Louisiana. And a sonar machine that can help find bodies under water was set to go out on the lake.

Not a scrap of evidence had surfaced to indicate whether he drowned, wandered off into the woods or if something more sinister happened, said Ouachita County Sheriff David Norwood.

“We’re going to make sure nothing’s unturned,” the sheriff said.

Source

Although there have not been indication as to what has happened to the toddler, searchers are determined to find him.

Norwood, who vowed to continue the search until he could provide the family with answers, called the situation “heartbreaking.”

“It’s sad,” he said. “They want answers.”

Tags: Dominick Wesley Arceneaux

Not all children turn out the way that so many that are featured in this blog do.  In honor of them and in hopes that this story will inspire others, this is the story of true blessings and thanksgiving.

‘Ecstatic’ families make 7 children their own

By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times

Posted: 11/22/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

Gallery: View more photos

EL PASO — Two years ago, Gabriel’s battered 2-month-old body clung to life at a local hospital.

He had nine broken ribs, a broken left femur, a collapsed lung and a head injury. His body also showed signs of past abuse, apparently at the hands of a relative.

Twenty-six months later, Gabriel is now Gabriel Angel Delgadillo, and is a happy, healthy boy awed by helium balloons and gifts in tightly secured boxes.

Friday, Gabriel was officially adopted by his grandmother, Eastsider Diana Lee Delgadillo, at a mass adoption ceremony in the 65th District Court with Judge Alfredo Chavez.

Gabriel was among seven children adopted Friday.

The event was sponsored by Child Protective Services as part of National Adoption Month and agency’s “Why Not Me? Why Can’t I Have A Family?” campaign to increase adoption awareness.

At the ceremony, the boy was renamed Gabriel Angel Delgadillo — Angel for the angels who have been with him since the day he was hospitalized, his new mother said. “I’m ecstatic,” Delgadillo said. She held Gabriel as he tried to open his gift from CPS. “He’s always been mine.”

Delgadillo’s attorney, Mark Briggs, said she has had custody of Gabriel since he was released from the hospital. “The doctors told her if they had waited 15 more minutes to take him to the hospital, he would have died,” Briggs said.

CPS officials said that in the first two years since the campaign began in 2006, children adopted from state care increased 31 percent. In the El Paso area, 107 children are awaiting adoption. About half of them are 9 or older.

Many children awaiting adoption are siblings. On Friday, Eastsiders David and Angelina Hernandez adopted their son, Leon, 11, who is also the brother of their two other adopted children, Adrian, 7, and Valerie, 10, whom the family adopted last year. Angelina Hernandez said she’s happy she was able to keep the three children, who were among eight siblings in CPS care, in the same family.

“Some people were already going to adopt (Leon), but it didn’t work out, so he asked us if we would adopt him. We love him, so we agreed,” Hernandez said.

Leon said he was excited about being adopted and looked forward to being part of the Hernandez family.

“I’m happy and I’m proud,” Leon said. “It’s important for us to stay together so we can have communication, and so we’re together as part of a family.”

For those who truly want to make a difference in the world, please consider adopting or fostering children.  It is an act of love that is eternally rewarding.

Tags: Adoption, Foster Children